An SSH client is a software program which uses the secure shell protocol to connect to a remote computer. This article compares a selection of notable clients.
| Name | Developer | Initial release | Platform | Latest release | License | GUI | TUI/CLI | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Version | Date | ||||||||
| AbsoluteTelnet | Celestial Software (Brian Pence) | 1996 | Windows | ||||||
| Bitvise SSH Client | Bitvise Limited | 2001 | Windows | ||||||
| ConnectBot | Kenny Root Jeffrey Sharkey | 2007-11 | Android | ||||||
| rowspan="9" | Dropbear | Matt Johnston | 2003-04-06 | AIX | rowspan="9" | ||||
| BSD | |||||||||
| Cygwin | |||||||||
| Linux | |||||||||
| HP-UX | |||||||||
| iOS | |||||||||
| Maemo | |||||||||
| macOS | |||||||||
| Solaris | |||||||||
| rowspan="5" | eSSH Client | Ecode Software | 2002–07 | BSD | rowspan="5" | ||||
| Linux | |||||||||
| macOS | |||||||||
| Solaris | |||||||||
| Windows | |||||||||
| rowspan="13" | OpenSSH | The OpenBSD project | 1999-12-01 | AIX | rowspan="13" | ||||
| Android | |||||||||
| BSD | |||||||||
| Cygwin | |||||||||
| Linux | |||||||||
| HP-UX | |||||||||
| iOS | |||||||||
| Maemo | |||||||||
| OpenVMS | |||||||||
| macOS | |||||||||
| Solaris | |||||||||
| Windows | |||||||||
| z/OS | |||||||||
| rowspan="5" | PuTTY | Simon Tatham | 1999-01-22 | BSD | -- The command line tool is called "plink" and is bundled --> | ||||
| Linux | |||||||||
| macOS | |||||||||
| Solaris | |||||||||
| Windows | |||||||||
| rowspan="4" | SecureCRT | VanDyke Software | 1998–06 | Linux | rowspan="4" | ||||
| macOS | |||||||||
| iOS | |||||||||
| Windows | |||||||||
| Tera Term | TeraTerm Project | 2004 | Windows | ||||||
| TN3270 Plus | SDI USA, Inc. | 2006 | Windows | ||||||
| WinSCP | Martin Přikryl | 2000 | Windows | 6.3.3 | 2024-04-16 | GNU GPL | |||
| rowspan="6" | wolfSSH | wolfSSL | 2016-07-20 | BSD | rowspan="6" | ||||
| Cygwin | |||||||||
| Linux | |||||||||
| macOS | |||||||||
| Solaris | |||||||||
| Windows | |||||||||
| rowspan="3" | ZOC Terminal | EmTec, Innovative Software | 1995-07-01 | macOS | rowspan="3" | ||||
| OS/2 | |||||||||
| Windows | |||||||||
The operating systems or virtual machines the SSH clients are designed to run on without emulation include several possibilities:
The list is not exhaustive, but rather reflects the most common platforms today.
| Name | SSH1 (insecure) | SSH2 | Additional protocols < | -- telnet, rlogin --> | Port forwarding and Tunneling < | -- port forwarding, socks, tunneling --> | Session multiplexing | Kerberos | IPv6 | Terminal | SFTP/SCP | Proxy client | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TELNET | rlogin | Port forwarding | SOCKS | VPN | ||||||||||||
| AbsoluteTelnet | ||||||||||||||||
| Bitvise SSH Client | ||||||||||||||||
| Dropbear | ||||||||||||||||
| lsh | ||||||||||||||||
| OpenSSH | ||||||||||||||||
| PuTTY | ||||||||||||||||
| SecureCRT | ||||||||||||||||
| SmartFTP | ||||||||||||||||
| Tera Term | ||||||||||||||||
| TN3270 Plus | ||||||||||||||||
| --> | --> | |||||||||||||||
| wolfSSH | --> | --> | ||||||||||||||
| ZOC Terminal | ||||||||||||||||
| Name | SSH1 (insecure) | SSH2 | Additional protocols < | -- telnet, rlogin --> | Tunneling < | -- port forwarding, socks, vpn --> | Session multiplexing | Kerberos | IPv6 | Terminal | SFTP/SCP | Proxy client | ||||
| TELNET | rlogin | Port forwarding | SOCKS | VPN | ||||||||||||
| Name | Keyboard mapping | Session tabs | ZMODEM transfers | Find text in buffer | Mouse input support | Unicode support | URL hyperlinking | Public key authentication | Smart card support | Hardware encryption | FIPS 140-2 validation | Scripting | Shared Database | Auto-reconnect | CA Certificates | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AbsoluteTelnet | |||||||||||||||||
| Bitvise SSH Client | |||||||||||||||||
| OpenSSH | |||||||||||||||||
| PuTTY | |||||||||||||||||
| SecureCRT | |||||||||||||||||
| SmartFTP | |||||||||||||||||
| Tera Term | |||||||||||||||||
| TN3270 Plus | |||||||||||||||||
| wolfSSH | |||||||||||||||||
| ZOC Terminal |
This table lists standard authentication key algorithms implemented by SSH clients. Some SSH implementations include both server and client implementations and support custom non-standard authentication algorithms not listed in this table.
| Name | ssh-dss | ssh-rsa | RSA with SHA-2 | ECDSA with SHA-2 | EdDSA | Security keys | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| rsa-sha2-256 | rsa-sha2-512 | ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 | ecdsa-sha2-nistp384 | ecdsa-sha2-nistp521 | ssh-ed25519 | ssh-ed448 | sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 | sk-ssh-ed25519 | ||||
| AbsoluteTelnet | ||||||||||||
| Bitvise SSH Client | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |||
| Dropbear | ? | |||||||||||
| lsh | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |||
| OpenSSH | ||||||||||||
| PuTTY | ||||||||||||
| SecureCRT | ? | |||||||||||
| SmartFTP | ||||||||||||
| Tera Term | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |||
| TN3270 Plus | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |||
| WinSCP | ? | ? | ||||||||||
| wolfSSH | ||||||||||||
| ZOC Terminal | ||||||||||||
| Name | ssh-dss | ssh-rsa | rsa-sha2-256 | rsa-sha2-512 | ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 | ecdsa-sha2-nistp384 | ecdsa-sha2-nistp521 | ssh-ed25519 | ssh-ed448 | sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 | sk-ssh-ed25519 | |
| RSA with SHA-2 | ECDSA with SHA-2 | EdDSA | Security keys | |||||||||